


A Magical Future

by Aria_Cinabun



Category: Minecraft - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: AU, Dragons, Gen, I am trying to drown out all the stupid pedophilia, MCC - Freeform, Tubbo and Tommy are brothers, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26079460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aria_Cinabun/pseuds/Aria_Cinabun
Summary: He's eight when he starts seeing monsters, nine when he can see forward in time.Tommy wants to be off with Techno and Phil and Wilbur, off adventuring.'Course, he and Tubbo are too young.Until they're not.
Relationships: Dave | Technoblade & Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 85
Kudos: 1338
Collections: Completed stories I've read, Found family to make me feel something, Tommy and Tubbo Friendship Supremacy





	1. Chapter 1

He faces across from the boy from his youth - the boy he hadn't seen in nearly three and a half years, who was a bit more grown up, a bit taller, a bit older, and just a bit more deadly.   
He swallows as the boy stares at him, his bow by his side, an arrow in his other hand.  
He wonders if this is the same boy that he's known for years, or if this is a different person entirely.  
He gets ready to dodge the arrow the boy may fire.   
He stands with his friends and he watches as another blonde, blue-eyed boy steps into his line of vision. They are sixteen, and one of them hasn't grown a bit, but the other is taller than Phil and himself - though not Wilbur.   
They stand ten meters apart, and nobody moves closer.   
He is not sure if they are his friends.


	2. Chapter 2

** ~Seven Years Previously~ **

He is starving.

Tommy frowns, rubbing at his stomach. He wants to be off wherever Phil and Techno and Wilbur are. He wants to be adventuring and doing cool things with the big kids. He wants to be part of their team.

He huffs as he plops down on the grass next to Tubbo, his friend, who is nearly eight months older than him, but acts like the sweet younger brother, according to Wilbur. The five of them aren't a...

"Fis - ih - cal," he sounds out loud. Tubbo gives him a weird look but doesn't question it. Probably 'cause he's the Alpha Male in this family. 

Anyway, Techno says that although they aren't a  _ fis-ih-cal  _ family - that means blood-related, by the way - but they're still a family.

And he's too young to go with them on the epic adventures that they won't talk about! He's nine, he's old enough! Wilbur tells him that he and Tubbo can come when they're  _ older _ , which means at least three years. 

He sometimes pictures himself off with Wilbur and Phil and Techno on epic adventures, although he knows that they've told him  _ enough  _ times they're just hired swords that get paid. That's how the food gets on the table. 

'Cept the guy who was supposed to babysit them went and ran off with every single bit of food and water and even some of the  _ money _ . And Tommy and Tubbo  _ dil-gent-lee _ went and  _ found  _ the money that Wilbur had told them was for emergencies. They'd spent it over the course of a week on bread and water and even a bit of cake, 'cause why not. So now they're hungry, and the others have been gone for nearly two weeks. 

And the neighbors are hungry, and even the neighbors' neighbor is hungry. And he's already stolen tomatoes and Tubbo threw up from the river water, so there goes that plan. Techno and the others shan't come back for another week, he's sure. When they're gone, it's usually two to three weeks.

He knows he wouldn't be hungry with  _ them _ . They'd teach him how to fight with a sword, real proper an' all that! Not the stupid stick stuff that Phil does in the yard sometimes. He'd fight dragons - Wilbur tells them they don't exist, but he  _ sees _ them sometimes (he doesn't tell the others that, not even Tubbo, 'cause then they'd send him to a looney bin, and he'd  _ never  _ get to go adventuring!) and he sees other things as well. Sometimes they stare back, but he  _ always  _ wins the staring contests.

"Tommy," Tubbo says, real nice and proper like he was taught. "I'm hungry."

He sticks out his tongue at his friend. "'Course you are. You're always hungry. I'm never hungry." Just then his tummy rumbles. 

"Yeah, you are!"

"Am  _ not _ !"

"Are  _ too _ !"

They lapse off into silence. Tommy is hungry. He hasn't eaten for nearly thirteen hours, he's sure - maybe midday yesterday, and  _ that  _ was only the tomatoes he'd stolen from across the street! The old lady sold them at the market, and she'd yelled at him and he'd scampered off, but not before he'd managed to  _ at-ain _ four of them, three for himself and one for Tubbo. He'd given his third to the blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy after he'd gotten a stomach ache from them. 

Wilbur would be proud of him.

"Phil's never said anything about a  _ sit-u-a-ton  _ like  _ this _ ," he complains. Tubbo nods in response. "What do we do?"

"I dunno."

"Yeah, but you never know," Tommy says, and he's right like he usually is. The town they live in is a poorer one, and nobody much cares about two small children like them. Techno said not to bother anyone, and he doesn't,  _ usually _ , but he's hungry right now and he doesn't much care. "You should go ask someone for food!"

Tubbo perks up. "Great idea!" He scampers off, then, and Tommy watches from a good dozen feet as he asks the nearest person, a man carrying a crate of apples, if he could have any.

The man hits Tubbo in response and knocks him to the ground, and while Tommy  _ pretends  _ he doesn't care what happens to his 'brother', he really does - only  _ he  _ gets to hit Tubbo, and certainly not like that! 

"HEY, YOU BITCH!" he yells like he sometimes hears Wilbur say before Phil saw him watching and shuts him up. He has no idea what it means, but it's a cool word. "LAY OFF MY BROTHER!" It's a term that usually comes to mind when thinking about his friend - in no way are they blood-related, but Tommy has lived with him his entire life and thinks of him like one. 

He watches the man sneer and turn towards him, and Tubbo is sobbing on the ground, and Tommy realizes that the term  _ bitch  _ must seriously be a horrible thing to say as the man steps towards him, his fist raised. He has no regrets though - okay, maybe a bit. 

"What did you just say to me?" the man sneers.

"You're, uh,  _ ugly _ ," Tommy spits out, which made Tubbo cry last time. Clearly, it doesn't work on this full-grown man. "And, uh, you  _ suck _ . Yeah, take that, bitch!" 

He gulps and steps back as the man takes a swing at him - he guesses what the bitch is gonna do like he sometimes does - Phil calls him lucky, but he likes to think it's  _ skill _ . 

Anyway, the man misses, and Tommy takes the opportunity to run around and grab Tubbo, who's sitting next to the apple crates, and  _ drag  _ him up. 

"HEY! STOP! THIEF!"

Tommy scoffs and throws the middle finger over his shoulder. Phil tells him not to do that, it's rude, but he feels like this is a good and fine time. He runs towards the forest, and into the trees, like he's done a million times, Tubbo trailing at his heels, and he finally stops ages into the woods, gasping for breath. 

"Well," he says. "This is all your fault, Tubbo."

"Oh," Tubbo says like he usually does. "I got these." He draws two apples out from his pockets.

Tommy grabs them. "Poggers! Thanks, Tubbo!" he sighs when Tubbo gives him the sad-puppy-dog look. Maybe Wilbur will be proud of him for sharing. "Okay, fine. Here." He hands one of the apples to his friend, who perks up and takes it, immediately crunching into it as he sits down at the base of the tree they hid behind. Tommy sits down behind him, and they eat their apples in silence until it's just the middle - but they eat that anyway, 'cause he's hungry and he wants to, but he spits out the seeds and the stem like Phil told him to do. Something about poison.

Tubbo follows his example, and soon they're having an apple seed spitting contest, which he  _ obviously  _ wins. 

"I'm still hungry," Tubbo complains when they're done.

Tommy would like to lie and say he wasn't, but he  _ totally  _ is. He opens his mouth to lie anyway, but his neck prickles like it sometimes does when he sees  _ things _ . 

His vision flickers, and in black and white, he sees an arrow hit his friend through the neck in a spray of blood. He blinks, and Tubbo is staring at him like he did moments before he  _ died _ , and Tommy shoves Tubbo aside. 

"Hey - !"

Tommy watches as an arrow thuds into place directly where Tubbo had been before, and he can predict things -  _ luck, Phil calls it _ \- sometimes, but never like  _ this _ . He looks up an' realizes it's dark, and then he sees a walking skeleton climbing out of the ground with a bow in hand, and he screams at the top of his lungs and points wildly.

Tubbo screams as well, and Tommy thinks that his scream sounds a bit manlier, but he reminds himself that's not important as he dodges another arrow that would have taken his head off had he not known where it was going to go at and moved. He takes off back into the trees back the way they'd come, and he hears Tubbo sprinting at his heels, and he regrets staying the hours they did in the forest, even if spitting apple seeds was  _ fun _ . Techno had told him not to go into the forest at night! 

He hadn't listened, 'course not. 

Tommy trips over a tree branch and falls flat on his face, and he can  _ feel  _ something drip down his face, but Tubbo runs right by him - what a  _ guy _ , can't even help his friend up - and then he hears the click of bones and he's scrambling up and running as fast as his feet can take him, surpassing Tubbo once again. 

The sunset is gone by the time they escape from the trees, and Tommy's ankle hurts and there's a dark spot on Tubbo's cheek where the man hit him, but he sees lights on in the house, and when he glances over his shoulder, the walking creepy skeleton is gone, and he stops, panting. 

"You saw that too?" he questions Tubbo, who is also resting, his hands on his knees. 

Tubbo nods wordlessly - and Tommy thinks with relief that at least he's not hallucinating, which means there's a walking skeleton that could still be chasing them - he screeches and races towards the house, through the back door, and directly into someone's back. 

He backs up, stumbles into Tubbo, and falls on his butt, panic on his face as he looks up, afraid it's just another skeleton guy, but it's just Wilbur.

He looks angry. "Tommy! Tubbo! What have I said about going in the woods at - what the  _ hell  _ happened to you?!"

Tommy gulps as he stands up. 

"Language," Phil reprimands Wilbur, who rolls his eyes. 

Tommy peeks over Wilbur's shoulder, and his eyes nearly fall out of his head when he sees cake there. He pushes past them and takes a slice, shoving it into his face. It's  _ so  _ good. He hasn't had cake in like a week!

"Ahem."

Tommy looks up at Wilbur, who's watching him with a raised eyebrow. Tubbo shrugs at him from across the table and re-digs into his own piece of cake. "Well, uh - " 

"I couldn't find them - oh, there they are."

"TECHNO!" Tommy shouts gleefully but doesn't get up as he takes another bite of the delicious chocolate of the cake. They're back early, this is great!

"Mrs. Lawrence said that you jumped the fence and stole the tomatoes," Techno says as if  _ that's  _ important when there are monsters outside. 

"Tommy," Wilbur sighs. "How are we going to take you on any adventures if you steal?"

"I wasn't supposed to, I know," he mutters, but he can't bring himself to feel sorry. "But I was really hungry, an' - "

"Why is your cheek bruised?" Phil interrupts, looking at Tubbo with narrowed eyes. 

"Someone hit me," the boy says nonchalantly, his mouth full of cake. Tommy rolls his eyes at his friend. Have some manners, for goodness sake!

"Someone  _ what _ ?" Techno says dangerously.

Tommy nods, finally glad that they're not mad at him anymore. "Yeah, we were trying to steal apples - "

"Why were you stealing apples?" Phil yelps.

Tubbo shrugs. "We were hungry." 

Wilbur just looks confused. "There's no need to steal, Tubbo. Did Tommy drag you into this?" He turns his narrowed gaze on Tommy. 

"Well, yes - but actually no!" Tommy says, raising his hands in defeat. "You said it was okay to steal if it was  _ important _ ."

"Why would you tell them that?" Phil sighs, raising an eyebrow at Wilbur.

"Well, I wanted to let them know that if they were starving, it's okay to take things," Wilbur points out. "Obviously, they didn't get the gist of what I was trying to tell them." 

"No," Tubbo says seriously. "We were starving." Tommy nods, picking a piece of Tubbo's cake, 'cause he's done with his and he is still hungry and Tubbo doesn't look like he's gonna finish his. "Mr. Clovis ran off with the food an' the money - "

"HE WHAT?" Wilbur shouts. 

Tommy nods again, finally managing to snag another piece of cake from the platter when nobody is looking. "An' then we used the emergency money like you said, but that didn't last long, an' it ran out like five days ago, so I stole stuff." He shrugs. "I kinda failed the first few times, so I took tomatoes from the Lawrence woman yesterday, and then Tubbo managed to take some apples today, but the river water is yucky and he threw up from it, so we got thirsty, 'cept the apple guy hit Tubbo so I called him a bitch and then he tried to hit  _ me _ and we ran into the woods..." he trails off. 

Wilbur's jaw drops. Techno just looks angry, and Phil looks plain shocked.

"Right," Techno says, and Tommy cheers silently when the pink-haired man grabs his sword from where it leans on the wall. "I'm off to do some...business."

"Techno,  _ no _ ," Phil tells him. 

"He hit a child!" Techno retorts. "And attempted to hit another one!"

"I am not a child!" Tommy screeches.

"Ooh, did you get to the part where a skeleton shot at us in the trees and then  _ pro-seed-ed _ to chase us through the woods," Tubbo says excitedly.

Tommy grinds his teeth together as he sees the three others pause, their eyes widening  _ min-is-culy _ . "No, Tubbo, I did not get to that part, because it did not happen."

"But it did!" the green-shirted boy argues. "He nearly took my head off, if you hadn't pushed me to the side, I would've gotten decapitated with an arrow!"

"Excuse me," Wilbur says, a tad dangerously. "Did you just say you saw a walking skeleton? And it saw you and shot at you?"

"No, he did not," Tommy answers, kicking Tubbo under the table.

"OW!" the boy wails. 

"What was that?" Phil demands.

"The bruise probably hurts," Tommy shrugs, returning to the cake Tubbo had abandoned. "The apple guy hit him pretty hard." 

"All right, I'm off," Techno announces, strapping his sword to his side. "See you guys later."

" _ Techno _ \- " 

The door slams shut. 

Phil rubs his forehead. "You two need to stop getting into trouble," he says with a small frown. "Tubbo, I'll put some cream onto the bruise, and Tommy, your forehead is bleeding."

"Poggers! Will it scar?"

"No, Tommy," Wilbur snorts. "No, it won't scar." 

"Dang it. Thought that would be cool."

* * *

"Why'd you tell them that the skeleton wasn't real?" Tubbo complains later that night.

Tommy rolls his eyes. Tubbo is so stupid sometimes. "'Cause then they'd think we're crazy, Tubbo!" he tries to explain. "Walking skeletons don't exist! They'd send us to the looney bin, and we wouldn't get to go on adventures!"

"But you said you saw it," Tubbo complains. 

"I did not," Tommy says, rolling over on his bed and trying to forget what had happened. 

"Did too."

"Did  _ not _ ."

* * *

The next day, Phil, Wilbur, and Techno sit down and have a Talk with them. At first, Tommy thinks they're in trouble, but after the first few words, he realizes that he's not. 

"That was very responsible of you two," Phil admits. "And I promise it won't happen again."

"You said it would never happen in the first place," Tommy reminds him.

Phil sighs. "Yeah, I know. But it won't happen again, I  _ promise _ ."

"You owe me cake if it does."

"Fine," Phil says. "But next time, instead of stealing, try asking, please?" 

"I  _ did  _ ask," Tubbo says sulkily, prodding at the bruise on his cheek, which made him cry when he looked in the mirror, but Tommy told him looked very cool and battle-y. "Then he hit me." 

"Don't worry," Techno says darkly. "He won't do that again. Or ever." He pats his sword.

"Techno!" Phil says. "You didn't kill him, did you?"

Techno shrugs. "I should have. But no, I didn't. He won't be beating up children anymore, though, trust me."

"You're so cool, Technoblade," Tommy says. Techno flashes him a grin. 

"Now," Wilbur says, after a moment of silence. "What's this about walking skeletons?"

Tommy and Tubbo look at each other. "Nothing," Tommy says. 

"We were just...joking. Haha. You know, like children do? 'Cept we're not children, we're all grown up." He puffs out his chest. "I'm  _ responsible _ ."

Techno snorts. "Okay, kid. Whatever you say."

"Screw you, bitch."

"TOMMY!" Phil shouts. "Language, please!"

"I don't even know what it means," he complains. "Wilbur just said it."

"It's a very bad word that big children use to call evil people," Wilbur says seriously, kneeling down and ruffling Tommy's hair. "You can't use it until you're older." 

He sticks out his tongue. "Can I come on an adventure with you?"

"No."


	3. Chapter 3

Two years pass. Tubbo is a year older, he's twelve, and Tommy's only eleven, but he likes to call himself twelve just to seem older. Maybe people will respect him.

Phil and Wilbur and Techno still go out around four times a year and bring back food and money every time, but Tommy notices that they seem tired more and more every occasion. 

"Where do you go?" he asks one time. 

"We fight battles to get enough money to feed you," Wilbur tells him.

He wilts at that. "You don't have to do that for me."

Wilbur smiles and ruffles his hair playfully. "One day, Tommy, you'll understand."

Tommy sighs. Wilbur is only twenty, now, Techno twenty-one and Phil twenty-five. "You mean when I'm older?"

"Yes, when you're older."

He hates that saying. 

"Now, I want you to promise me something," Wilbur tells him. "I want you to promise me that if anything weird starts happening, when you're  _ older _ , nothing should happen now, tell us, okay?" 

"'Kay," he says glumly. He breaks that promise within five minutes, 'cause he doesn't tell them when he sees Phil drop a glass of milk before it actually happens. 'Cept he doesn't save it, just watches it happen, because he wants to eat his pancakes, and besides, they'll just ask him random questions. 

He assumes it's just a normal thing. He doesn't tell anybody 'cept Tubbo, and he swears the older boy to secrecy, who mentions that weird things have been happening to him as well - like he can give people headaches. Tommy doesn't believe him, not when Tubbo can't manage to give  _ him  _ a headache, but if he can see future stuff happening, anything is possible. 

* * *

' _ TOMMY! TOMMY HELP!' _

"Shut up, Tubbo," he mutters, opening his eyes and expecting to find the blonde-haired annoyance hovering over him. He blinks when he sees that nobody is in the room, and he sits up.

Huh. Must be an echo of a dream.

' _ TOMMY! HELP!' _

Okay, that's certainly not a dream. He can hear Tubbo's voice echoing in his head, and he scowls, trying to shake it off. 

_ 'I fell down a pit, an' I think I broke my leg, you gotta help me, Tommy _ \-  _ '  _ the voice wails in his head, and it's so obviously Tubbo.

_ 'Where?'  _ he pushes back.

_ 'Can you...hear me?' _

_ 'Yes, you idiot.' _

_ 'How?' _

_ 'I DON'T KNOW! What, you think I'm the master of everything? I wish, Tubbo, I wish. Now, what do you want?' _

I mean, if he can predict the future, it's all too possible that Tubbo can do mind-to-mind talking. He'll think about it later.  _ After  _ he rescues his friend. After all, dragons that nobody else can see fly through the skies, and nobody else can see the beasts, he's sure of it because the villager's eyes go right over them when he sees them watching him and Tubbo. He doesn't bother Wilbur or Phil or Techno, though, because they're gone when the monsters come. They only appear when Tommy and Tubbo are alone. 

_ 'I fell into a trap in the forest - ' _

_ 'Okay, okay, I'm coming, but you owe me your cake for this.' _

Tommy scrambles out of bed, grumbling in annoyance as he throws on a shirt and puts on a pair of pants and tears downstairs.

"Where are you going to early in the morning?" Wilbur calls after him.

"Tubbo fell into a hole," he shouts over his shoulder as the throws open the back door and runs into the yard. Wilbur scoffs, obviously he doesn't believe Tommy, but Tommy will prove him wrong - unless he doesn't, and that voice in his head is just him going crazy.

'Cept he's not, and he finds Tubbo at the bottom of a hole with his leg looking fuzzy and swollen and weird. They're in the forest, and he hasn't been there since the skeleton - the Incident, they call it, and he doesn't know why Tubbo is here, but he helps his friend out and they limp back to the house together, where he sees Phil, Wilbur, and Techno in an intense debate.

" - just  _ let him into the woods _ ?" that's Phil, he's sure of it.

"I thought he was kidding!" 

"It's all good, I got him," Tommy calls cheerfully, and Tubbo moans as he accidentally nudges his hurt let. "Oops. By the way, I think Tubbo is hurt."

"Yeah, no shit," Wilbur says. 

Phil doesn't even elbow him as he takes Tubbo from Tommy and lies him down on the grass. "It's broken in two places. Techno, could you get the medicine and the splint?" Techno nods once, sprinting off to the house. "Shh, Tubbo, everything is going to be alright."

"I'm dying," Tubbo moaned.

"You're not dying," Tommy tells him seriously. "I would know if you were dying." He wants to talk to Tubbo about the weird telepathic thing, but he doesn't want to give away their Important Secrets right in front of Wilbur and Phil.

Phil glares at him. "Tubbo, how did you even injure yourself?"

"I fell into a pit," Tubbo groans. 

Wilbur swings his gaze over to Tommy. "Did you plan this?"

"What?" he yelps. " _ What?  _ That's a low blow, Wil. An Alpha Male doesn't break his friends' leg."

Wilbur rolls his eyes. "Alright, then how'd you know he fell into a hole?" he asks suspiciously. 

Tommy's grin falls off his face. "I..." he glances over at Tubbo, who shakes his head like he's having a seizure. "I had a dream."

Wilbur stares at him. "Have you had any of these dreams before?"

_ Yes _ . "No," he says.

"I want you to promise me that if these...dreams ever happen again," Wilbur says after a moment. "That you'll tell us, alright?" 

Tommy gulps. "Alright."

_ 'You're really bad at lying.' _

_ 'Shut up!' _

* * *

Tubbo's leg heals, and Tommy learns how to fight with sticks and how to fire a bow - with  _ plastic arrows _ , but it's close enough, and then he turns twelve, and everything changes.

He knows by now that he can see things before they happen int he future. He can't control it, and sometimes it's small things, like when Tommy knew that Wilbur took the last cookie even though the older boy had  _ sworn  _ he hadn't, but sometimes it's big things, like when he knew that Techno got hurt before he got back from his adventure. 

He's careful to hide it from the older boys, who are watching him with a bit of suspicion. He wants to go on adventures, and  _ not  _ be called crazy, but he still sees monsters come close when Wilbur and Phil and Techno are gone, and he sees dragons fly in the distance. 

Tubbo has telepathy, and some weird ability to hurt brains, so he gives headaches to people when Tommy wants to steal from them, or if they're just plain being  _ annoying _ . He communicates with animals too, with birds that chirp and flap to his shoulder - but after he gets caught with Phil, Tommy reminds him to be more careful so the older kids don't send them to the looney bin.

Tubbo can see the dragons too, and sometimes they argue over the colors of the dragons and the monsters creep closer every time the trio is gone, until one day they're right outside the house, and they break in and Tommy and Tubbo have to run, run, run through the woods.

They get lost.

"This is all your fault," Tommy complains on the third day that they're lost. They've used Tommy's knife - he stole it from Techno - to kill a few squirrels that Tubbo coaxed down from trees using his telepathy. Tubbo doesn't like it very much, but the food is food, and he eats it as much as he is uncomfortable with it. 

Phil and Techno and Wilbur aren't gonna look for them for a while - they left on their  _ adventure  _ two days ago, they ain't coming back for a while, and Tommy misses home.

But home is trashed by those monsters, and he knows that he can't really lie anymore about the superpowers he and Tubbo have. He regrets not telling the others earlier, but it's too late for that now. 

'Cept a dark shape passes overhead and crashes into the trees, and Tommy screams as a fucking dragon crashes into the trees, raining pine needles and sticks all over the two boys, who cower as the dark green shape lies still.

"Is that a dragon?" Tubbo whispers. 

Tommy nods wordlessly. 

"We've only seen them far away," Tubbo says. 

"I wonder if it's alive," Tommy says. He steps closer, and Tubbo follows him - ever the clingy friend, but he doesn't  _ really  _ mind, not as much as he says he does. 

The dragon...thing has dark green scales, spikes on its tail and on its back, and large membraneous wings, one of which is crushed under its body. 

Tubbo gasps and Tommy holds out his dagger as two small shapes crawl across the body of the bigger dragon towards them. 

"Awww," the older boy coos, bending down and peering at the small green dragon that sits on its haunches in front of him. Tommy steps back as he stares at the other one, which moves towards him. "What happened?" He cocks his head. "Your mother died?"

"You're talking to it?" Tommy hisses. 

" _ It  _ is named Icarus," Tubbo says with a hint of annoyance. "And the other one is Fern." He looks back at the green dragon in front of him. "You wanna come home with us, boy?"

"We don't even have a home, Tubbo!" Tommy says, his pitch steadily rising. "We don't even know where home is!"

Tubbo ignores him, and grabs Tommy's hand. "He says to reach out your hands."

"And you're gonna listen to a dragon?" Tommy grumbles, but he remembers that Tubbo is twelve, an' boys make stupid decisions sometimes. He sighs and keeps his hand outstretched as  _ Fern _ \- he wonders if it is a girl or a boy - sniffs his proffered hand. "Are you gonna bite it off?"

Tubbo rolls his eyes at Tommy, and then a flash of pain flashes through him, and he lets out a scream as he rolls onto his back, arching his spine as the pain reaches his back and  _ sets in _ . "WHAT THE FUCKING HELL - "

Tubbo screams as well, and a flash of green light occurs, and Tommy is blinking back tears as he stands on his feet to kick the stupid dragon. 'Cept it's not there anymore. Neither of them are. 

He's confused. He turns towards Tubbo, who's reaching a hand up his shirt to rub at his aching back, and then there are two flashes of red light and two men are standing there wearing red tunics with a red 'N' on them. 

"Who the fuck are you?" Tommy challenges, raising his dagger. 

The first one, the one with rainbow hair, looks over at the second guy, who has orange hair and glasses. "Are you sure that's them?"

"Dude, look behind you," rainbow-hair whispers, and glasses-guy turns and gasps when he sees the dragon. 

"Look, bitches, I don't know who you are - " Tommy starts, raising his dagger to swipe at them like Techno had taught him. He yelps as the weapon grow hot in his grip, and he drops it to the floor, staring at it with wide eyes. Glasses-Guy smirks at him and grabs his arm, and he sees Rainbow-Hair grab Tubbo's arm as well.

He kicks at Glasses-Guy, and then he's falling in a flash of red light and they're in a white room with a sign saying  _ Noxcrew  _ in brilliant flashing letters on the wall. He clambers to his feet, brushing himself off. "What the  _ hell _ , dude!"

He catches Tubbo as the boy appears, because he  _ saw  _ it happen before it does, and brushes off the pine needles from his friend's body before glaring at his kidnappers. "Who the fuck are you and why did you kidnap us?"

Rainbow-Hair answers him. "I'm Kaizo, and all mages must participate in Minecraft Championships until they win."

Tommy blinks. "What?"

Glasses-Guy sighs. "Look, how old are you?"

Tommy puffs up his chest. "I'm  _ twelve _ ."

"You're - !" Kaizo says with wide eyes.

"So am I," Tubbo announces proudly.

"They're  _ children _ ," Kaizo hisses to Glasses-Guy. " _ Children _ , Aeltumn!"

"Their magic was unlocked," Aeltumn says. "It is the rules."

"They're  _ twelve _ ." 

"Excuse me," Tommy interrupts politely. "BUT WOULD YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?"

Kaizo sighs. "Well, can't do anything about it now," he says. "Look, you two have magic, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess," Tommy says, confused.

"Well, it's the law in the country that all mages - that's you - " Kaizo clarifies. " - must compete in a tournament every three-four months with a team until they win. They can compete in it again to win food and money to bring home."

"Well, I don't wanna participate," Tommy sniffs. "I wanna go home."

"Too bad," Aeltumn sneers. "It's the law." He walks over to the wall and pulls out a little mechanism thing that looks like a temperature scanner - Wilbur bought one when Tubbo was sick. 

Aeltumn, the bitch, walks over to Tubbo, and holds it up in front of the blonde-haired kid's forehead. 

Tommy blinks as his vision shifts to black-and-white, and he sees Tubbo slump to the ground, his eyes open and empty, blood trickling from his nose. His vision shifts to normal, and he shoves Tubbo aside just as the door bursts open.

"Don't use the scanner on them!" someone shouts as Tommy and Tubbo crash to the white floor. "They'll die!"

He feels relief fill him as Tubbo blinks at him, and he hauls his friend up. He knew that Tubbo would die from that thing. He predicted up. 

Aeltumn looks at the scanner, then at the newcomer, a blonde-haired girl. "What?"

The blonde-haired girl gulps. "They don't have enough neurons in their brain to handle it, Aeltumn," she says, glancing sheepishly at Tommy and Tubbo. "They haven't developed it enough to survive it."

"How are we supposed to put it on the papers?" Aeltumn yells.

"How about you just let us go?" Tommy suggests.

"NO!" Kaizo and Aeltumn shout at the same time. Tommy rolls his eyes. 

Kaizo rubs his face. "Do you know what magic you have?" he asks Tommy.

"I'm lucky," Tommy says, lying. "And Tubbo has telepathy. Only with me." Tubbo gives him a look, but Tommy nudges him and Tubbo starts nodding. 

The blonde-haired girl squints at them. "Huh. They have something odd about them, there  _ is  _ a bond between them - "

"Shut up, Skyao," Aeltumn mutters. "Let's just get them on the papers."

"But they're not legal!" Skyao argues. 

"I like you, lady," Tommy decides.

Aeltumn crosses his arms. "The choosing part comes in about ten minutes, Skyao. We are down a person. We need someone to fill up the teams."

"What...children?" Skyao points out.

Aeltumn shrugs. "Well, they're both twelve, right? Together they're twenty-four."

"That's not how it works - " Tubbo starts.

"HEY! I'M AN ADULT NOW!" Tommy shouts, jumping in the air.

"This is gonna go so wrong," Skyao groans. She glares at Aeltumn. "I'll just go tell the boss this was  _ your  _ idea, and that's why a team has five people on it...two of them being twelve-year-olds that probably just got their magic and have a level One power."

Tommy snorts. "I'm powerful."

"Doubtful," Kaizo says. 

Tommy really wants to beat him up, but the rainbow-haired man has a sword and he doesn't even have the knife anymore, it's back on the forest floor. "Listen here, bitch - "


	4. Chapter 4

** ~Wilbur's POV~ **

Wilbur leans against the back of the stands, shifting in his jacket in annoyance. They're the Orange Orangutans this time around, and he really just wants to get this over and done with so he can go home and make sure his two younger brothers aren't causing any trouble. Tubbo is usually not a problem, but Tommy can be a bit...chaotic, and usually manages to drag the older along with whatever he does. 

He's already won once - they all have, but they need the money that the placing in the tournament gives. They haven't won since the first time, and they don't plan to - better to give others freedom - but the tournament gives food and money and they need it, being mages in a kingdom where mages aren't liked at all. 

He hums a song under his breath, warming up his voice for the fight, even though he knows that their magic is locked off by magical cuffs on their arms for the duration of most of the tournament, except for the finals, in which two of the people on the team are chosen to fight two others on the opposite team. That way, one person can't just carry the team to victory, though that's kinda what Techno did the time they won. 

His magic is used through his voice - he can charm others into doing things that he wants them to, and he only is a level Three, but that's usually enough time to give Techno and Phil and whoever their Fourth will be to take out the two, if they make it to the finals. He's only twenty-one, he still has four years to develop his powers further, and the scanners are sure he can become a Five. 

Phil's a Four; he started off at a One, and his power is topped off, but he's the oldest and the most laid-back and is basically the father figure in Wilbur's life, and his power is the ability to levitate short distances. 

Techno is more complicated - the twenty-year-old doesn't even know the extent of his own abilities; he's a Seven right now, but can become a Nine, the Noxcrew says. He can summon a sword - not the one he wears around Tommy and Tubbo - that has the power to cut through any armor, and shield, even magically-created shields. In the presence of the sword, any enemies will instantly cower in fear if they cannot combat the mental harm the sword causes, and attempt to run away. Wilbur has single-handedly seen it make enemies go mad - not any of the other teams, but in real situations, in real life. He has no doubt that that night that Techno went off to  _ talk  _ to the apple shopkeeper he used it to tear away at the man's mental defenses. 

He knows that Tommy and Tubbo are both mages, but has no idea what their powers could possibly be, as they were babies when they were dropped off at their doorstep and Phil decided to keep them. He has a feeling that they will Peak - when their magic first starts appearing for certain, not in little flashes - perhaps when they're sixteen or seventeen, instead of when they're eighteen like most people do. It's rare, but it happens. 

Tommy has shown signs of being able to dream into the future - he's done it once, and it  _ could  _ just be a coincidence, but the boy swore up and down that he had no idea the hole was there earlier. Tubbo has shown some signs as well; sometimes he looks at the monsters that Wilbur sees at the edges of the trees, and the first time they came back and talked about a walking skeleton. Even though the next day they said they were joking, Wilbur saw a bit of fear enter Tubbo's eyes whenever he mentioned it.

The monsters only came to mages that had not hidden their powers the first time. And only mages that had Peaked could be sensed by the monsters, and only mages can  _ see  _ the monsters. Wilbur was pretty sure Tommy would have talked about the dragons that sometimes flew overhead had he been able to see them. He's not looking excited to explain to the younger that they don't actually go on  _ adventures _ , not most of the time - no, most of the time they're doing  _ this _ . 

"Think we'll find a good Fourth?" Phil asks him.

Wilbur sighs, throwing the packet of people that had been given to them aside, not even bothering to look at it. Their Fourth will join a team of three their second time - if they don't win - and will become another Trio that has to pick a Fourth.

The Noxcrew team is only doing their duty of the hosters of the tournament - they've been the hosts for the past dozen years, and it's the law so that regular people, the powerless, don't feel as if the mages have the advantage.

Wilbur scowls. A part of him would rather be a normie than a mage. He knows Phil and Techno wouldn't give up their powers for  _ anything _ , but it would be far easier to take care of the children they're trying to provide for if they could get regular jobs. 

He looks over at the other teams - there are ten of them total, but there are thirty in the stands; Trios, looking for their Fourth. Because his team got second place in the last tournament, they get to pick first (the first place team gets to pick last). 

"They'll probably be a loser," Techno snorts, eyeing the team that won last time - the Dream Team, who is also here, waving at them. They're not enemies, they're all here to provide for their families, but there's a bit of friendly competition between the leader of the Dream Team - Dream himself, and Techno, the leader of their team, the Sleepy Bois Incorporated. It's a stupid name, but Tubbo suggested it when he was like three, and it kind of stuck. 

"You think everyone's a loser," Wilbur points out. 

Techno rolls his eyes. "That's cause everyone  _ is  _ a loser." He pulls the discarded folder of people towards him and opens it up. Wilbur sighs, readying himself to listen to Techno make fun of the next few people. "Grian. Four. Eh, decent." 

" _ I'm  _ a Four," Wilbur protests.

"Yeah, but you have the advantage of height," Techno says. "This guy is nineteen - ooh, he either Peaked late or he was on the run - and he's five feet  _ six inches _ ." Techno shakes his head. "I can't have a shrimp on my team. Next." Phil catches the paper as he rips it out of the folder and throws it into the air. "Uhm. Skeppy. What kind of loser name is that?" 

"Your name is literally Technoblade," Wilbur says.

"Yeah, but that sounds cool." Techno peers at the paper. "He's seventeen - huh, Peaked early - oh, he's a Six, pretty okay." Wilbur rolls his eyes again. Techno, Dream, and Pete are the strongest ones here. "He can change his skin to the hardness of diamond and can blow things up. No thank  _ you _ . Next." Phil catches that paper as well. "Badboyhalo. What kind of names are these?" Techno snorts. "He's a Two. Boo, how boring. Wait, actually, that's kinda OP, no wonder he's a Two."

"What can he do?" Wilbur asks, curious despite the situation. 

"He's twenty," Techno continues. "He can turn people to  _ dust _ ."

"What the fuck?" Wilbur says, leaning over Techno's shoulder to see the picture of a brown-haired, green-eyed man in a black robe and glasses, looking annoyed with someone off-frame who is giving him bunny ears. "That's pretty cool."

"Eh," Techno says, ripping the paper up as well. "Fundy. He's a One. Can transform into a fox. How boring."

"That's kinda boring," Wilbur says. "But pretty cool in certain situations."

"Maybe if he wants to hide in forests," Techno says. "Not the kind of teammate we need." He flips through the next few papers. "Stress - Four, she's like that girl from Frozen, what a poser - a6d, he's like a  _ vampire _ , what a nerd - " He's about to turn to the last page when the buzzer sounds and the announcers come over, saying that they are going to put the ten newbies onto the stage. Techno throws the folder to the side, and Phil picks it up with a sigh.

"I see where Tommy gets his chaoticness," Phil groans. 

"Tommy's a whole other breed of chaotic," Techno says. "He's like a cross between a backward bulldog and a small, tiny penguin that won't stop chirping until you want to smash it into a pancake."

Wilbur shakes his head, laughing. "Wow, that just came pouring out."

"What can I say?" Techno says with a smirk. "I've found a lot of words I can associate with the kid." 

Wilbur watches the ten people - he recognizes a few that he saw over Techno's shoulder; there's Badboyhalo, Skeppy, Stress, and there's a grey-skinned guy that must be the vampire Techno is talking about, and there's the 'short' kid with a red sweater. He frowns as the line of people stop. 

"Why are there only nine?" Phil asks.

"Maybe they're just really bad at counting," Techno suggests.

" - FUCK YOU, BITCH!"

Horror fills him as Tommy is literally  _ thrown  _ onto the stage, skidding on the ground, Tubbo rushing in after him, the blonde-haired boy narrowing his gaze as he climbs to his feet. "FUCK YOU!" he screams. "YOU SON OF A BITCH, I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL FUCKING HUNT YOU DOWN AND MURDER YOU - "

Wilbur nearly tumbles down the stairs as he rushes towards the stage, Techno, and Phil at his heels. "What the HELL?" he seethes, grabbing Tommy and dragging him away from the orange-haired noxcrew named Aeltumn, Tubbo blinking up at him in surprise. 

Aeltumn shrugs, stepping back warily as Techno steps between him and Wilbur, drawing his sword. "He's part of the Championships now, whether you like it or not."

"Look here, bitch boy," Tommy calls, making a bunch of people in the crown laugh. "That blonde-haired woman said it herself! Me and Tubbo are like, twelve, and I know you think that's grown up - and I sorta agree with you - but I have no idea what you mean by magic and Peaking and you fucking almost murdered Tubbo 'cause you would have used that stupid scanner on him - "

"Everything's gonna be okay," Phil says soothingly, and Wilbur turns to see Tubbo crying, the blonde-haired man hugging him, trying to get him to calm down. "Everything is going to be fine."

Aeltumn shrugs. "Shut your child up," he tells Wilbur coldly. 

"Nah," Techno says, raising his sword menacingly. "I agree with him. He's twelve, Aeltumn. They're both twelve."

"Twelve and twelve make twenty-four if you put them together," Aeltumn smirks. "You get both of them."

"That's not how it works!" Wilbur says, and he hears people in the crowd agreeing with them. "They haven't even Peaked yet - "

"They have," a blonde-haired girl said as she walks past Aeltumn onto the stage. He recognizes her - she's part of the Artist branch of the crew; Skyao. "They peaked and Kaizo and Aeltumn found them in front of a dead dragon."

"You must be mistaken," Phil says coldly. "Nobody Peaks at twelve."

"They did," she says, looking slightly apologetic. "And if Tommy hadn't pushed Tubbo out of the way of the scanner, he would've died. So we have no idea what level of power they have because they would die if we used a scanner on them."

"Exactly!" Techno snarls. "So let. Them. Go."

"No can do," Aeltumn says. "They're officially part of the championships. Sorry, Techno." He doesn't look very sorry. 

Kaizo appears next to Aeltumn in the stupid teleporting way he does. "Are you going to choose them on your team?" he asks, sounding bored.

"Yes!" Wilbur says, Techno and Phil echoing him. 

Kaizo narrows his eyes at Techno. "You know them."

"They're my brothers," Techno spits. 

"I was not aware you had brothers," Aeltumn muses. 

Techno glares at them. "Not blood-related. But yes, they're my brothers, just as much as Wilbur is."

"I'm hungry," Tubbo speaks up. 

"Yeah," Tommy says. "Monsters blew up the house and we had to run, so give us food."

" _ Excuse  _ me?" Wilbur asks, turning to look at the blonde-haired rapscallion. The house  _ blew up _ ? There were monsters?

Tommy scratches his head. "Yeah, they've been coming closer every time you guys leave, and this time they tried to break into he house and murder us. But - don't worry!" He smirks. "I got Tubbo outta there, and we ran into the woods, 'cept a few days later a dragon fucking crashed into the forest, and it legit, like died, and then those two fuckheads decided to up and kidnap us!"

"You need to stop swearing," Phil says.

"It's justified," Tommy sniffs, and Wilbur can't really argue with him. 

It makes sense. If Tommy and Tubbo Peaked today - then monsters  _ would  _ have been creeping up on them slowly. They'd been preparing to stop attending the Tournaments when Tommy and Tubbo turned fifteen so that they could keep an eye on them, but they'd Peaked extra early.

Impossibly early.

"How long have you seen the monsters?" Wilbur asks.

It's Tubbo who answers. "Since we were like seven," the boy shrugs. 

Wilbur exchanges a look with Phil. "That's not possible," he says numbly.  _ That's not possible _ . That's too early, too  _ soon _ . He clutches Tommy closer to his chest, the younger boy flailing and trying to push Wilbur away, but failing to do so. 

Wilbur looks at Techno, who nods at him. They have to win. They have to win this week so that his brothers can be free. They thought they would have to do this much later. They didn't think it would happen today.

But maybe that was because  _ nobody  _ Peaked when they were twelve. Nobody got their magic at twelve. Nobody saw monsters at seven.

But Tommy and Tubbo had, and they'd been shoved into this horrible world years before they should have. 


	5. Chapter 5

"So," Tommy says, stealing a bit of Tubbo's cake, earing a yelp and a half-hearted slap that he dodges without even using his predictions. "What's this about Championships?"

Wilbur and Phil, who sits across from them in the rooms they'd been given, after the teams had been chosen and divided, glance at each other. "Well," Phil says carefully. "I'm sure you know that we've been keeping secrets from you."

Tommy snorts. He knows this. He's a bit hurt - why didn't they tell him earlier? "Yeah, whatever."

Phil winces at that.

"Hey, you're not off the hook either," Wilbur says. "You said you would tell me when something weird happened."

Tommy shrugs. "I thought you meant, like,  _ puberty _ . Not seeing monsters and dragons and being - " He cuts himself off. 

"And what?" Wilbur asks.

He gulps, looking away.

"What...exactly is your magic?" Phil asks carefully. 

"I can talk to Tommy with my brain!" Tubbo pipes up excitedly. "That's how I told him I fell into the pit!"

Wilbur sighs. "I should have expected something like this. So. You're telepathic?"

Tubbo nods. "Nobody else can hear me," he admits. "I tried to talk to you once, but it didn't work. It's easier to talk to Tommy." He brightens. "OH! Sometimes I can give people headaches!"

"Was that why when Tommy was trying to steal that guy came down with a huge migraine and you two managed to get away with it?" Techno says humorously.

"...yes," Tubbo admits. 

Techno snorts. Phil sighs. "What about you, Tommy?"

He shrugs uncomfortably. He doesn't want to tell them the truth, so he says what he told Aeltumn and Kaizo. "I'm lucky." 

_ 'Why can't you just tell them the truth?' _

_ ''Cause I don't know it.' _

_ 'Yeah, but you're just lying.' _

_ 'Shut up, Tubbo.' _

"...lucky, how?" Wilbur questions.

"I just get a feeling," he says with a small cough, looking down at his hands. "And, you know, it just  _ happens _ ." It's not the  _ whole  _ truth, but it's not a lie either. "Like when I tripped over my shoelace when Aeltumn was gonna accidentally kill Tubbo, and knocked him out of the way." 

"That's an odd power," Wilbur says thoughtfully. "Then again, this has never happened before in the history of mages."

"What's  _ your  _ power?" Tommy asks. 

Wilbur smiles. "Suggestion," he says. "When I sing."

Tommy gasps. "So when you would sing and I would fall asleep, that wasn't because I was tired?"

"No, that was because we all wanted you to shut up," Techno says. 

Tommy rolls his eyes. "Well, Mr. Blade," he says. "Next time I trip over my shoelaces, it ain't gonna be to save you."

Phil coughs. "I can levitate, and Techno can summon a super cool sword. Wilbur, if you could explain briefly about mages...?"

"Yeah, so, um, basically there's a score between one and ten based on how powerful you are," Wilbur says as he shoves his beanie onto his head. "And I'm a Five, and Phil's a Four, and Techno's a Seven, but at twenty-five, you top off and you can't increase your score. So Techno could one day - possibly - be a Nine, and I could be a Six." 

"What am I?" Tubbo asks.

"No idea," Phil answers. "They can't scan you until you're eighteen, but I'd say both of you are Ones." He looks over at Tommy. "Maybe you're a Two because of the rarity of your powers." 

"Ha!" Tommy cheers. "I beat you, Tubbo! I  _ am  _ the Alpha Male!"

"Don't be so excited," Techno grumbles. "I know normies who could beat your childish ass." Tommy sticks out his tongue at the pink-haired man.

"I'm not a child anymore, Techno, I'm competing in a tournament meant for eighteen-year-olds," Tommy said, puffing his chest out. "I'm  _ special _ ."

"Special-minded, maybe," Techno shoots back. "I don't think you understand what is happening."

"Sure I do," Tommy says. He thinks he does. "I have magic and I get to go on adventures with you guys!"

Wilbur smiles at him, and there is sadness he sees there, and he doesn't understand  _ why  _ \- this is everything he's dreamed of. "This is a tournament where we'll be competing in mini-games to race to the top," the brown-haired man says.

"That just sounds cool," Tommy says. 

Techno slams his hand on the table, and Tommy notices that his hand is shaking slightly. Why? Why is Techno acting like this? "Tommy, this world has special technology that allows one to die and respawn," he says.

Tommy's jaw drops. "... _ die _ ?" he whispers.

Wilbur nods. "There are games that are just races and teams, and then there are the games that we try to kill each other just to get coins so we can be number one." Tommy's heart drops, and Tubbo shivers. "Sure, you respawn, but you can still get hurt. It still hurts when a sword touches you, because it's very, very real." 

Tommy stares up at him, mouth agape, because Wilbur just told him that people were tryna kill him. "But - but why would anyone wanna hurt me?"

"Because you're annoying, insufferable - " Techno says.

Phil glares at him and then turns back to Tommy, who's trying not to cry, who's trying not to act scared, because  _ real  _ men don't act fearful or scared. "All mages must participate in the tournament when they Peak," the blonde-haired older man says. "And they continue to, until they win, to participate in these tournaments once every four months." Phil scowls. 

Tubbo says in a quiet voice, "So I'm going to have to do this over and over until we win?"

"No," Techno says. "We are going to win  _ this  _ time, and then we are going to retire, and I will never set foot in this fucking establishment ever again."

"YEAH!" Tommy says. "FUCK THEM!"

"Perhaps you shouldn't be saying that in a room that they own," Phil cautions.

"When does it start?" Tubbo asks. 

Techno glances at Phil. "Tomorrow." 

Tommy likes this just a bit less.

* * *

"Orange...Octagons?" Tubbo mutters as he reads the name on the orange and dark navy jacket and matching pants they'd been given.

"It says orangutans," Tommy says. Usually, he'd make fun of his friend, but now he's just nervous.

"Oh. Whoops." Tubbo goes up on his tippy-toes, looking over the crowd of about twenty-something people milling around the lobby, the giant timer, instead of counting down, reading SOON. "Do ya see them?"

Tommy tries to catch sight of a bucket hat, a beanie, or a flash of pink hair - or perhaps an egotistical shout. "Nope." 

They'd lost sight of the others after Tommy had spoken to a  _ woman _ \- a girl named Stress, who had been looking for her own team. He knew it didn't  _ really  _ matter; they'd all be teleported into their respective boxes at the start of the Decision Dome, which Techno had explained to them the last night, along with a few of the mini-games.

There was an agreement going around, led by Techno and Wilbur, to not vote for the PVP-related games. That way they didn't have to kill any children. Some of them had agreed - a lot of them were mad that Tommy and Tubbo were twelve; and even though they had Peaked they were forced to participate.

Tommy though twelve was plenty old! He was old enough - okay, maybe not. 

"You're Tommy, right?" 

He looks up to see a brown-haired man with scary black and white goggles wearing a white and light blue jacket and pants. "What's it to you?"

The man laughs. "Okay, okay, jeez, you just looked lost."

"Tommy is  _ never  _ lost," he says.

"We're definitely lost," Tubbo pipes up.

"Woah, woah, no, we're not," he says, elbowing Tubbo hard. "We know exactly where our teammates are." 

"George, no consorting with the enemy - oh, it's the children." Tommy spins around to see a man with a white mask coming towards him, a horribly drawn smiley face on it. Instead of the usual jacket, he's wearing a green sweatshirt with a  _ black  _ smiley face on it. Tommy scoffs. 

"You're  _ Dream _ ."

"Did Techno tell me about you?" Dream says, the lower half of his face rising into a smirk.

"No, I could just tell from the general bitchiness." 

"So saltiness really does run in the family."

"Fuck you, you green bastard." 

"What's your name again? Tommy?" Dream shakes his head. "You're still young, and I know you don't want to participate in this tournament - "

"I  _ do  _ want to participate!" he says. 

"Why?" George asks him.

"Well, because Wilbur and Phil and Techno always leave," he finds himself saying. "And sometimes there's no food, so Tubbo and I have to steal n' stuff."

"We survive though," Tubbo says seriously.

Tommy snorts. "I  _ always  _ survive."

"Not in this competition," Dream says. "Not under  _ my  _ watch."

"But you can't even watch," Tubbo points out. "Your eyes are blocked by a mask." He's completely serious too. Tommy loses it. He starts laughing and laughing until he's crying and Tubbo is staring at him in confusion and Dream is dead silent. 

"What's going on here?"

Tommy turns, wiping the tears away to face Wilbur. "Oh, hey Wil! Don't mind us, just insulting Dream 'cause he's a bitch."

"Wha - hey!" George says. 

"Fuck you too," Tommy says gleefully before Wilbur drags him and Tubbo away. 

"Oh, thank goodness you found them," Phil sighs with relief, patting Tommy on the shoulder. "The games are starting soon."

Tommy sniffs as he tugs at the magical bracelets on his arm. "These are annoying." When he'd first had them put on, he felt like he was missing something. Tubbo had said that he couldn't  _ feel  _ Tommy anymore, which was weird. 

None of the five of them had gotten any sleep last night. Come morning, they'd thrown on the jacket and sweatpants and walked out into the lobby. During the time where everyone was sleeping, Phil had taught the boys the games that they would be playing - some were racing related, which Tommy loathed doing, but was certainly better than Battle Box, Survival Games, or Skyblockle. Wilbur had sat them down and told them that they shouldn't be trying for first, just try to do the best they could possibly do.

Techno had said that if Tommy didn't get in the top ten overall, then he would be cut out from the family. 

His eyes flick up to the timer, and he sees it at fifteen seconds. He sees Tubbo shaking slightly, and nudges his brother. "Look, we're gonna kick ass, okay?"

Techno snorts. "Oh,  _ yeah _ ."

Tommy glares at him. "Shut up, pig."

"Says you,  _ child _ ."

"You're a horrible older brother."

"I'd hate to be related to you," Techno shoots back.

"Too bad, you're stuck with me."

"Children, please stop arguing," Phil says.

"HA! He called you a  _ child _ !" Tommy says. 

"I think he was talking to you."

"No, I was talking to you both," Phil says. "Look, Tommy, Tubbo, no matter what happens, after this, we're done. No more tournaments. No more secrets. We can go on real adventures. I can't promise you everything will be fine because my first time, I got nightmares for months and months - but we'll be there alongside you every step of the way."

"Promise?" Tubbo whispers.

Phil nods sharply. "Promise." 

Tommy feels a familiar white flash fill his vision, and when he opens them, he sees a bunch of color splashes - a giant pie-shape in the middle and ten colored cages, of sorts, with four people in each of them. His team is in the orange one, and the three older are looking up at the eight blocks that hang in midair above the eight pie slices.

"Eight games are shown," Wilbur murmurs, almost to himself, but Tommy listens, though he's heard this before. 

He watches as the games show up one by one. 

Rocket Spleef is first, and at least it's not  _ completely  _ PVP - plus flying sounds cool. Phil doesn't seem to like it much, his nose scrunching up.

Then Ace Race. Sounds tiring in his opinion. He doesn't think he'll make it very far. Wilbur assured him the night before that as long as he finished, all would be good. 

Hole in the Wall. That sounds  _ super  _ fun, and he's even allowed to say it to his teammates, and they won't yell at him for sorta-kinda being interested in PVP. 

Wilbur curses loudly when Battle Box shows up, and Tubbo wilts, but part of Tommy is excited about it. A chance to kill people? He'd  _ totally  _ dominate.

Okay, maybe not really, because he can't use his predictions 'cause of the stupid cuffs, but it sounds sick and he's sure Techno will dominate. 

Then Big Sales at Build Mart, which everyone hates, but his team likes this time because it means no killing children. To Tommy, it sounds kinda boring, but Tubbo seems excited, so he doesn't diss it  _ too  _ much. 

Then Sands of Time, which is kinda eh, but he's not allowed to go fight monsters, so that's stupid, and he'll have to shovel sand into the timer. 

Finally, Parkour Warrior - which also sounds exhausting - and Survival Games. 

"I thought you liked Survival Games?" one of the other contestants, a guy in an onesie that Tommy can't recognize, calls over from the yellow cage. 

"I do," Techno says calmly, putting his hands in his pockets. "Don't kill the children, and everything will be good." He flashes a grin that makes the guy - his name is Zelkam, Tommy's pretty sure - go white and take a step back.

Wilbur taps his shoulder, and Tommy turns to see Wilbur holding a chicken egg. He takes it, confused. "Throw it into the Ace Race," Wilbur says, pointing towards the pie slice.

Tommy sighs; he doesn't really want to do Ace Race, but he knows better than to disobey - okay, he doesn't, but maybe if he's good, and Sands of Time is chosen, he'll be allowed to kill monsters. So he dutifully takes the egg and tosses it into the pie slice under the Ace Race block. It spawns a chicken, and Tubbo goes  _ awwww _ and names his chicken Bartholemew. 

"Good, they're listening," Phil mutters, as a single chicken wanders into the Battle Box pie slice - but nobody actually aims for it. Tommy watches as the chickens wander around, and eventually, the walls of the pie lift and the chickens are being counted. 

It turns out Ace Race wins, and Tommy closes his eyes as the familiar white particles fill his vision and he is teleported to a very bright and colorful place full of fauna. 

The forty of them are lined up on the starting line. 

"Yellow is speed pads. Run on them to go quicker - I don't know how it works, don't ask me. Red is jump pads," Wilbur says. "Don't worry, fall damage is disabled, so if you fall, you won't get hurt." Tommy has no idea what that means, but if it gives him more power, it gives him more power. "In your hand, you should have a water boost button. Use it in the water to launch yourself out of the water. The moment you go through the blue rings, you'll be given wings that allow you to glide. Whatever you do,  _ don't  _ fall off the edge. It'll kill you." Tommy nods, looking up at the countdown again, which reads twenty seconds. "The orange-spotted pads are the mega jump pads. They're what they sound like." Wilbur hesitates. "Techno, Phil, or I would stay back with you two, but we need to get as many points as possible, as technically, we're down a teammate."

"Thanks," Tommy says. 

"No problem," Wilbur says. "You and Tubbo are very athletic. I know you can do well." He hesitates. "Just...stick together, alright? Don't die?"

"You gotcha, chief."

"Don't call me that."

** "...three..." **

Tommy turns and nods at Tubbo, jumping on his toes as he prepares himself to run. He wants to do good, he wants to prove his brothers proud.

** "...two..." **

He doesn't want to die. He can see the void off to the side, and although it seems as if it's blue and shiny and the sky is reflected off of it, Wilbur and Phil and Techno have assured him that it hurt to die in the void. He really doesn't want to die.

All he has to do is finish. Participation points. 

** "...one..." **

There are yellow boosters on the ground in front of him. Wilbur says they will make him go faster. Tubbo looks terrified, but they've done obstacle courses for fun before, at Phil's will - had he been preparing him for this?

** "GO!" **

Tommy starts running like he does when he's running through the woods. Tubbo is by his side, but he can immediately see people shoot by him - Techno and Dream and many more, including Wilbur and Phil. He glances at his wristband - he's in thirty-second place right now, and Tubbo is in thirty-third. 

The air rushes by him as he hits the booster pad, and he's  _ thrown  _ forward because he doesn't expect the speed that comes with it, nearly throwing himself into the mud pit that immediately follows the stupid booster pads. 

"Fuck," he mutters to himself, glancing over his shoulder to see Tubbo catch himself at the edge of the mud pit and jump down onto the big rock. He jumps onto the next rock, and then clambers onto dry ground again, adrenaline pumping through him. 

More booster pads, onto a thin line of wood - it's not  _ that  _ thin, nearly a foot across, but he's done those before; minus the booster pads. 

Maybe Phil  _ was  _ preparing them for this. 

He jumps onto even  _ thinner  _ iron bars, and sees a person fall into the mud below, and laughs at them as he races past. Tubbo is still behind him; they've done things like this a million times before, and for once he's glad Phil pushed them through grueling obstacle courses when they were sore and tired. 

Then another booster pad, and then he's jumping onto three smaller stones over more mud, and then there's an arrow on the ground and the void is approaching, and he aims for the red jump pad that he sees on the ground.

The moment he steps on it, it flings him sky-high, and he screams as he falls, aiming towards a large body of water, and cringing as he hits it. 

It doesn't hurt. He expects it to hurt, but it doesn't. 

People are passing him as Tubbo lands next to him in a screaming wail, also surprised that they're not hurt. He puts on his game face, aims himself at the water, which goes upward, and presses the launcher button on his hand. 

He's tossed through the air, almost violently, and lands at the top of the waterfalls, nearly falling over in the current and clinging on. Then he has to do it again to get onto what looks like concrete clouds. 

He changes his mind...this is  _ fun _ . Sure, his legs already hurt and he's dripping wet as he hits the ground in a roll, but he runs onwards. 

Thirtieth place. Not bad. Not dead last. 

He comes to the edge of the cliff and halts because he sees where he needs to go, but he does  _ not  _ want to step off that cliff just so he can gain wings at the last second and glide.

"Later, losers," a man in a beaver costume says as he jumps off and passes Tommy by. 

"SHUT UP, FURRY!" he yells. 

"We should jump," Tubbo recommends.

Tommy jumps. He feels the wings as they save him, and he whoops with exhilaration, nearly crashes into the wall, and hits the ground, the weight of the wings disappearing. 

Then there's a million jump pads and boosters and they get stuck a bit, but Tommy has a grin on his face as he leaps into the water and shoots himself down, bubbles spewing from his mouth and he's coughing - but he's having  _ fun _ . Even though Noxcrew kidnapped them. He understands why Wilbur said this was one of the most fun games. 

They finish the three laps after a bit, and he doesn't see Techno until the very end, but he manages to get twenty-ninth place and Tubbo gets thirty-second place, so that's pretty good, and Wilbur seems to think so as he high-fives Tommy, and then Tubbo, who comes panting in afterward. 

"Imagine not getting in top five," Techno says with some amusement. 

"Imagine being  _ them _ ," Tommy counters, sticking his tongue out at  _ George _ , who gets thirty-fifth place. "Being beaten by twelve-year-olds."

"Oh, yeah, they're even more loser-ish than you," Techno laughs.

When the Ace Race is finished, they're in fourth place overall, which Tommy thinks is pretty good, but Techno says he would've rather saved this game for later, because the next game is worth x1.5 coins. 


	6. Chapter 6

Next is Hole in the Wall, which Tommy finds  _ very  _ fun indeed, and even Techno is laughing - they can't die in this game, they fall into the water and then get teleported into the sidelines, so Wilbur and Phil aren't as nervous and he's allowed to have fun and laugh when Tubbo gets catapulted off of the slime. 

Tommy dives through a hole; he's only twelve, he's smaller than most people here, 'cept maybe Grian and the black-haired boy named Skeppy, and sticks his tongue out as Wilbur falls into the hole in the middle of the arena.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be on the same team?" he hears someone say with amusement, and he rolls his eyes at the guy with the :L mask, what a Dream poser.

"Yeah, but I still gotta make fun of my brother."

His cuffs grow hot all of a sudden, and his vision turns a flickering black and white, occasionally flickering back to normal as he screams in pain. 

_ "GREEN!" he hears Techno shout from his vision, and he's turning too late to see slime coming for him, and he's launched off the side -  _

Tommy shakes his head to dispel the pain, and he turns earlier than before, getting ready, knowing that the slime coming from behind him is a distraction.

"GREEN!" Techno shouts, and Tommy and Techno and Dream are the only ones ready, most of them half-turning around as Tommy leaps safely through a hole in the center.

"How'd you know?" Dream says, watching as his teammates fall into the water. 

"Luck," Tommy smirks.

"You don't have any magic." Whoops. He forgot he told everyone he had luck magic. 

"I don't need it."

Still, that unsettles him. He  _ shouldn't  _ have any magic; Wilbur said that the cuffs blocked it. And they had, kinda, and his arms still tingled from the remembrance of the pain. Yet the vision still had come through.

He sighs as he gets out next, and he appears next to Tubbo, who's looking at him.

"Why'd you scream, man?"

Tommy shrugs, and he sees others watching him, and he turns back to spectate Techno and the green bastard named Dream, who tie at the end and then shake hands with white fists and a smirk and a glare. 

There are more rounds, but Tommy did the best in the first one and doesn't do as well in the final few. He can never control his predictions, so sometimes the walls catch him off guard - or sometimes his visions will be about someone else on his team, and he'll have to shout at them to duck and dodge and people give him odd looks but he ignores them. 

They end up getting third overall, which isn't too good, but Tommy cheers and playfully punches Phil when he sees he got third place in the number of points per person on their team. 

"How do you even let a child beat you?" Wilbur says to Phil.

"I don't wanna talk about it, mate."

And then...then there's Survival Games. 

"We're  _ not  _ gonna go to the middle," Techno says. "We're gonna turn around, and you're going to follow my lead, Tommy. Do  _ not  _ run off on your own, you hear me? Unless you want to die."

"Why'd you say my name and not Tubbo's?" he complains.

"Because Tubbo is compliant, unlike you."

Tommy rolls his eyes. 

The five of them take off when the timer counts down, and Techno leads them to a building halfway between the border and the center, and Tommy throws open a chest and cheers when he finds two stone swords.

"Uh-uh."

Tommy rolls his eyes as Wilbur reaches over his shoulder and grabs one of the swords. Tommy manages to take the other one, grabbing a bit of bread and a potion of fire resistance. He turns to see Techno with a shield, an iron sword, and a pair of diamond leggings. Phil has a crossbow and an iron helmet and an iron chestplate, and Tubbo has a bow and a golden chestplate and diamond boots. Techno tosses Tommy a leather cap and an iron chestplate, which he puts on, wrinkling his nose at its heaviness. 

"Unarmoured defense provides more than this," he mutters.

"This isn't dungeons and dragons," Tubbo reminds him.

"Shut up, Tubbo."

"You two," Techno says, and Tommy looks up at the pink-haired man. "Follow closely. If we get into a fight that we're losing, I want you to run."

Tubbo sighs. "Yes, Technoblade."

"Don't sound so disheartened about it, come on, it'll be fun," Techno teases.

"Hey! Don't give him ideas!" Phil says warningly, bopping Techno on the head with an arrow before he loads it into his crossbow. 

"He doesn't have a big enough brain to hold ideas," Techno says.

" _ Hey _ !" Tommy yelps. "I'm twelve, that's pretty old!"

"False," Techno states. "You are a legitimate child."

"No - "

"Use it to your advantage," Techno says. "People underestimate you."

"No they don't, they know I'm an Alpha Male."

Wilbur snorts. "Yeah,  _ right _ ."

"They do!"

"HEY!" Phil shouts, interrupting the brotherly argument. "We have people approaching - I think it's the Lime Llamas?"

"They're a bunch of casuals," Techno notes. "We should attack them."

"But what about Tubbo and Tommy?" Wilbur asks.

"Eh, they'll be fine."

"Yes!" Tommy cheers. 

Phil sighs. "Well, if we're gonna win, we need to get as many points as possible." He rubs his forehead. "Which means attack them."

Techno nods, a smirk on his face the size of Jupiter. 

"You two stay up here," Wilbur instructs. "Shoot them or something. Just  _ don't  _ drop down."

"Yeah, yeah," Tommy mutters. "I'll stay up here." 

He watches as Wilbur narrows his eyes at the two boys, and then follows Phil and Techno out onto the balcony, as the three prepare to drop onto the unsuspecting targets. 

Techno goes first, and drops down onto Vurb, who lets out a shriek and gets one hit off before Techno stabs him and he disappears into a pile of smoke, his armor and weapons, and items dropping to the floor. Tommy was warned about this, but his cheering falters slightly.

"Techno just killed someone," Tubbo mutters. 

"YEAH! FUCK THEM!" he screams at the top of this lungs. 

_ Pain.  _

His vision flashes black and white - the Noxcrew team said that the metal bracers around his arms would  _ stop  _ his magic, but clearly, it's not working too well. 

His vision is flashy, so he turns in time to scream at Tubbo - but he's too late, he's too  _ slow _ , and he watches as Skeppy from the Yellow Yaks puts a sword through Tubbo's chest.

_ 'Tommy - ' _

He doesn't know how Tubbo is communicating to him when they both have their blockers on, but he doesn't care as he takes a step back and falls off the balcony as Skeppy raises his head and smirks him, two more people from his team stepping into the room - one with a mask that has a silly :L face on it, the other wearing a superman shirt. 

He falls on his back and scrambles to his feet. "FUCK YOU SKEPPY YOU SON OF A BITCH - " An arrow whizzes by him, shot by Zelkam, and he dodges behind Wilbur's shield, which he didn't have before - he must've picked it up from Finnster, who had one before he'd died to one of the blades. 

"Who's the bitch now, you child?" Skeppy says, smirking and resting his sword over his shoulder. 

"Nice job,  _ Skeppy _ ," Techno calls up, raising a crossbow and hitting Harvey in the shoulder, the Red Rabbits disappearing into the shadows of the room that Tommy had vacated. "You just killed a twelve-year-old! Must've been difficult." 

There is no answer as Tommy curses and stomps his foot. He knows that Tubbo is in the watching area, but he's still worried about his friend. 

"Hey," Phil says. "You'll see him again."

"I know," he grumbles. He doesn't mention how he somehow has faulty bracers, or that Tubbo does as well - that his friend somehow communicated with him via telepathy, or that Tommy can  _ still see the future _ , even though he gets extreme pain flashes when it happens. 

Wordlessly, Wilbur hands him a diamond helmet, and he snatches it out of the musician's hand, jamming it onto his head. He sees Phil trade his sword for an ax, and Wilbur take up a bow, but Techno keeps his sword and takes the shield that Wilbur hands him. 

"Should we go after them?" Phil asks Techno, who, despite being the middle child, is the leader here. Tommy doesn't understand, but he's quieter with Tubbo gone, worry rolling through his stomach. 

"Nah," Techno says, shaking his head. "The border is coming in." Tommy turns around and panics at the quick-approaching barrier that makes his vision tint red. Techno laughs at his expression. "Don't worry, let's just head towards the middle. The final showdown should be in about a minute."

Tommy feels a sense of satisfaction when only one member of the Red Rabbits - Harvey - manages to escape the border. He looks injured but has pulled Techno's arrow out of his chest. His smile slips. 

He wonders if dying hurts. He's afraid, now. He thought this would be easier. He didn't expect Tubbo to die just like that. 

He feels an arm sling around his shoulder, and he looks up to see Wilbur looking at him.

"Hey, Toms - it's always hard the first time, alright?" Wilbur says quietly, as Techno and Phil discuss strategies that Tommy doesn't understand. 

He pushes Wilbur away. "Yeah, yeah. I know that Tubbo is alive."

"No, but the human side of you won't truly believe it until you  _ see  _ Tubbo alive," Wilbur points out. "For all you know, he could be dead."

"He's not dead."

" _ I  _ know that. But you don't."

"Yeah, I do."

"You're a young kid, Tommy. You're not sure."

"Well, being a young kid didn't exactly stop me from competing in a stupid tournament that I was meant to compete in about six years."

Techno turns to face him. "We wouldn't have left if we knew you two were seeing things."

"Maybe you should have  _ told  _ me that I would see those things!" Tommy says.

"I thought you would call me crazy," Techno replies coolly.

" _ I  _ thought I was crazy, Techno," Tommy whispers, feeling tears prickle at the corners of his eyes. "I thought that something was wrong with me, but  _ you  _ told me that if I wasn't well I'd never go adventuring with you guys." He aims a kick at a rock. "I guess you were lying anyway."

Techno stares at him. 

Phil sighs. "Tommy, we were going to tell you when you were fourteen. That's when  _ Techno  _ started seeing things. He Peaked at seventeen, three years later. What you and Tubbo did is unheard of."

"Besides," Techno interrupts. "We do go adventuring. We don't do  _ this  _ every time we go out."

Tommy opens his mouth to answer, but Tubbo's familiar voice fills his mind.  _ 'Look up, Tommy!' _

He looks up. Sees a masked man preparing to jump down. "ABOVE US!" he screams, and Techno raises his shield in time to stop the diamond head of an ax from splitting his head open. 

A second person sprints from the doorway of a house, and Phil blocks George from getting to Tommy, neatly stepping in front of the boy. 

A third attacks from around the corner and Wilbur is fighting Sapnap and the clang of weapon against weapon fills the narrow street, and Tommy panics. He doesn't know what to do. Techno and Dream are moving so fast, sword against ax and shield against shield - he can't put himself into that situation, and they told him to  _ stay out _ , but a fourth person from the Aqua Axelots steps out of the shadows, and nobody notices, and Tommy has to face the newcomer that stood on the stage with him. Badboyhalo.

"Fuck you," he howls, his arm trembling from the effort of keeping Bad at bay. 

"Language!" the black-cloaked man says with a scowl. Tommy is momentarily surprised, but Bad doesn't seem like he  _ wants  _ to kill him - either that, or he's really bad at fighting with his sword. 

Tommy's twelve, but he's just as tall as the older man, and he's trained with Techno, just a bit, and he's so focused on his own battle that he doesn't see Phil fall, only hears the shout of Wilbur - he's  _ scared _ , he's terrified, he's so lucky that Bad isn't particularly brilliant at fighting; sure, he's good, but Tommy is good as well, and he's only twelve. 

_ 'BEHIND YOU!' _

Tommy turns, whipping his sword around in time to cut Sapnap across the stomach, ducking so that Bad doesn't behead him, seeing the small surprised expression cross the black-haired man's face before he turns into a pile of dust.

He's in shock, and he should have turned, but now there's no time, and he hears the swish of a sword and he has no  _ time _ , but the sound of a bowstring echoes, and he makes the turn in time to see Bad stumble back with an arrow in his heart, falling into a whispy pile of smoke, leaving his items on the floor.

Tommy whirls to see Techno there, injured and hurt, and with a hand over his bleeding eye, but there is nobody else in the street. "Wilbur and Phil - " he chokes out. 

"They're dead," Techno says, but there's a small smile on his face as he hugs Tommy quickly. "Good job, kid. Now let's get kitted up." Tommy forces a smile on his face as he trades his leather and gold for some iron and diamond, swiping Dream's diamond ax as Techno takes George's diamond sword. 

He doesn't know how to use a shield, so he leaves it there in Wilbur's item pile, hoping that Techno is right and they're really okay. He knows they are, but Wilbur was right - he doesn't believe it, this is an odd world indeed where one can respawn. 

"How did you know to turn?" Techno asks him quietly. "You should have died."

Tommy agrees with that statement. "I - I heard him."

Techno studies him. "Okay," he says. "But I'm just saying, Sapnap was a tracker - he's the most silent in the group. I don't know how that's possible without at least a few years of experience."

"I'm just the greatest," Tommy boasts. 

Techno rolls his eyes. "Yeah, whatever, kid."

"Hey, Wilbur and Phil are dead. They can't argue with me."

Techno snorts, grabbing Tommy's arm and pointing to something floating in the sky, watching them. "That, my friend, is a camera."

"We're friends?"

"Oh, definitely not. It's an expression. But cameras are watching us - I have no doubt that Dream is raging over how a child managed to kill one of his teammates." There's a malicious smirk on Techno's face as he starts walking towards the center of the map. 

Tommy feels an identical smirk cover his face, and he quickly flips off the floating shape before jogging after his older brother. So that was how Tubbo kept warning him.

_ 'Tubbo?'  _ he tries, pressing on the bond in between them. No response. He sighs. The magic blockers are very unpredictable. "You know, you should add me to the team permanently," he suggests. 

"Ha -  _ no _ ."


	7. Chapter 7

They end up getting first place in the Survival Games, but after the other games - Build Mart, Parkour Warrior, and Bingo - they're in third place. 

"We gotta get coins," Techno mutters as they load into the final game; Rocket Spleef. 

"How do you play this?" Tubbo asks politely. 

"Well, you get a rocker launcher - " Wilbur starts.

"I get a  _ gun _ ? POG!" Tommy shouts, cheering. 

"Is this even legal?" Phil says wearily. "Giving guns to children?"

Techno shrugs. "I dunno, but the Noxcrew team is definitely gonna regret doing it."

Wilbur coughs. "So you get a rocket launcher, and you use your wings to glide around from blocks. Use your...gun...to aim at people that are standing on blocks, and you can knock them out. We  _ used  _ to get firework rockets, but that prolonged the game too long and they got rid of it."

"I get a gun!" Tommy says happily. 

"Did you even hear a word I said?"

"Yeah, yeah," he says briskly. "Shoot people, fly around. Should be fun!"

Phil sighs. "Just try to get as many points as possible so we never have to go through this again unless you want to."

"Hey, but this is fun!" Tommy shouts. 

"Yeah, but if you lose, your teams are randomized," Techno warns. Tommy gulps. Yeah, he should probably try to win. "Besides,  _ no way _ am I letting you do this again until you're ready."

"Bitch, did you see me in the Survival Games?" he says. "I killed Sapnap."

"Luck."

"That's literally his magic," Phil points out. Tommy exchanges a glance with Tubbo, wincing awkwardly. 

_ 'You should have told them the truth.' _

_ 'Wha - no way!' _

_ 'I thought we promised no more secrets.' _

_ 'I'll stop keeping secrets when they stop keeping secrets.' _

Tommy's so busy with his telepathic argument with Tubbo that he screeches when the floor disappears, and feathery wings appear on his back. 

Tubbo yells out joyfully, laughing, and Tommy grins as he glides around, seeing a small device in his hand, and a button on his side that's labeled  _ Rocket _ . He aims the device in his hand at the nearest part of the giant rainbow they're flying over, and gives a whoop when particles fly forth and a portion of the rainbow explodes. 

"THIS IS SO COOL!" he yells over the rush of the wind. Tubbo nods empathetically where they're flying together. Tommy puts out his arms and cheers loudly when he sees Techno knock someone off the rainbow.

This is the happiest he's ever been. He's with his friends - his  _ brothers _ , and there is wind in his hair and he is flying in the sky - even though this is supposed to be a competitive tournament, Tommy finds small parts of it...fun. 

He looks over at Tubbo, and nearly falls out of the sky. "Tubbo!" he says. "Your back is glowing!"

Sure enough, it was, through their identical jackets.

Tubbo looks over, confused, and his brown eyes go wide. "SO IS YOURS!"

Tommy can't see his back through his wings, but he looks and realizes that nobody else is like this. He winces as he sees Wilbur fall into the void, and Phil follows shortly after.

"BEHIND YOU!" Tubbo screams, and Tommy dips his head and narrowly avoids a rocket by none other than Dream.

"YOU FUCKER!" he yells.

_ 'Tommy, NO!'  _ Tubbo screams rather loudly into his head. 

He doesn't listen and divebombs the green bastard, putting out his hand and firing a rocket. He sees the stupid Aqua player jump off the rainbow and take to the skies, as much as gliding allows. Too late, he realizes he doesn't know how to stop himself, and he screams as he plummets towards the void. 

Feathers burn to dust around him, and his wings explode - it would have hurt if it had been real wings instead of attachments. He falls faster, leaving the rainbow behind, the remnants of screams tearing through the air behind him as he falls. 

And then he's swooping upwards using movements that aren't his own, and he looks over his shoulder to see the stupid green dragon named Fern dragging its claws into his jacket, its tail curled around its waist.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING ON MY BACK?" he yells, but he shoots past Dream, who whirls and looks astounded. Fern just gives him an annoyed look as he goes back to being level with Tubbo, who also has a dragon on his back - Icarus, was it?

"OH MY GOSH TOMMY THIS IS SO COOL!" Tubbo yells, his face bright and his cheeks red as he glances over his shoulder time and time again.

Tommy isn't so sure, but Fern rumbles on his back and he decides to say something before the unpredictable green lizard drops him. "Yup. Real cool."

He has no idea if this is legal or not, but he and Tubbo hover far above the rainbow, able to dip up and down, purple-grey wings destroyed and literal  _ dragons  _ replacing them.

"Thank we'll get in trouble?" Tubbo asks worriedly.

"I dunno," Tommy says. He's startled as fireworks in his team colors burst the air around him, and his vision goes white. A flash of green light fills his vision seconds before he lands in the lobby with Tubbo at his side. 

There's silence. People are staring at them.

"OH MY GOD, WE WON!" Tommy screams, high-fiving Tubbo.

"OH MY GOSH TOMMY WE ACTUALLY WON!" Tubbo screams in return. There are no signs of any dragons in sight, but as Tubbo spins in a circle, excited, through the dragon claw marks in his clothes, Tommy catches a glimpse of a green tattoo on his friend's back. He swallows nervously.

"They cheated!" someone shouts.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Tommy screams back in the general direction of the voice. "YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS THAT WE'RE COOL AND YOU'RE NOT!"

He feels someone ruffle his hair, and he huffs and pushes Wilbur away as the older boy laughs. "Good job, Tommy and Tubbo." There's a questioning look in his eyes. "We made it to the finals thanks to you."

The crowd parts as Kaizo stalks through it, and Tommy shuffles behind Wilbur as his teammates surround them.

"What the fuck was that?" the rainbow-haired man demands. 

"Language!" Bad says. Kaizo throws the man a glare, and he wilts. 

"It was us fucking destroying you, that's what," Tommy humphs. 

"Yeah," Techno laughs. "Imagine losing to a pair of twelve-year-olds."

"That's because they cheated!" Dream scowled. Tommy glances up at the sigh; they were the other opponents in the finals. He flips the green idiot off; he doesn't know why they care so much if they're in the finals as well. 

"Dream, how could they possibly cheat?" Wilbur says patiently, grabbing Tommy's arm and holding it up to show the cuffs that line his arms. Tommy notices that they have small tiny cracks located in them, but he doubts the others can see them. "Besides, we have a telepathic boy, and a boy with luck magic. How the  _ hell  _ could you use that to cheat in Rocket Spleef?"

Dream opens his mouth to respond to it, but he can't seem to find words. Tommy sees Phil glance at him, worry on his face, but he doesn't ask the question that is so evident in his eyes. 

"Well," Kaizo says. " _ Something  _ happened." 

"Fuck you," Tommy sniffs. Wilbur's arm on his shoulder tightens, and he shuts up before he finishes that sentence.

Kaizo tilts his head, and glee shows up on his face. "Well,  _ normally _ we would allow the teams to choose their two best champions, but in this case...Tommy and...Tubbo, was it?" He smirks. "You two can fight in the Dodgebolt finale." 

"WHAT?" Wilbur shouts. 

"No, no, no, no," Techno says, his eyes burning a shade of red, and even Kaizo takes a step back as the cuffs around his arms crack a tiny amount. 

"Control your teammate," Kaizo snaps to Phil, who puts a hand on Techno's shoulder.

"Can you break your blockers?" Tubbo asks. 

Phil nods. "Potentially, yeah - the strongest, like Dream and Techno can."

Kaizo snaps his fingers, and the blockers around Tubbo and Tommy disappear. He lifts his arm, the magical part of him returning to its full extent. "You have one minute before you're teleported into the arena."

"What's Dodgebolt?" Tommy asks. 

"You get a bow," Wilbur says through clenched teeth. "And every so often you get an arrow that spawns in the center of your side of the arena.  _ Don't  _ cross the line, otherwise, you get shocked. The other team will try to shoot you. One hit, and you're eliminated. Also, don't walk off the side of the arena. There's lava down there, and you die." 

Tommy swallows, clenching and unclenching his fists. "Don't worry, we got this." He spares a glance for his friend, who looks terrified out of his mind. 

"It's fine," Phil says comfortingly. "We'll win next time. It's fine if you lose."

"You'll be fighting Dream, and I'm guessing Sapnap," Wilbur says. "Dream is  _ very  _ good with a bow. Sapnap is also decent."

Tommy chuckles, trying to bring up the arrogance that Techno displays very well - except the pink-haired man just looks angry. "Dontcha worry, Mr. President, we got this." He elbows Tubbo. "Don't we?"

"Um, yeah," Tubbo says quietly. 

"You guys have the advantage of being able to communicate with telepathy," Phil says. "Use it." He looks over at Tubbo. "You can communicate with Tommy?"

The blonde-haired boy nods. "Uh-huh. Easier than anyone else."

"And Tommy...be lucky," Techno says quietly. 

_ 'Tell them, Tommy. Tell them now.' _

Tommy steps forward. "I, um, have something to say." Wilbur tilts his head at him, and Techno turns from glaring at Dream to look at him. He hangs his head. "I was lying, earlier. My power isn't luck." Phil steps back, confused. "It's - "

He disappears in a shower of white light, and when he opens his eyes, he's in a lowered floating platform over a bed of lava. He has a bow in his hand, and he sees two arrows drop by Dream's feet - who has Sapnap at his side. He scrambles up, watching carefully the red line that separates the two sides. 

On his right, Tubbo is standing there, wild-eyed and scared, but biting his lip in an attempt to be brave.

Dream picks up the arrows with slow, casual movements, as if he has all the time in the world. 

His vision flashes black and white, and he sees Dream hand one of the arrows to Sapnap, who fires it at Tubbo while Dream fires his at Tommy. The raven-haired boy hits, and Tommy sees Tubbo eliminated.

He shakes off his vision, and there is no  _ time _ , so he sprints and he runs as Dream aims his arrow at him - Sapnap hasn't drawn back his bow yet, but he  _ will _ , and Tommy pushes Tubbo aside as an arrow permeates the place where his friend would have been. The others around the arena are muttering things, and Tommy drags Tubbo to his feet.

He steps back casually, and an arrow - the first, fired by Dream, goes right where he had been.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Dream yells. 

Tommy bends down and picks up an arrow that's spawned in the center of their side of the arena, handing the second to Tubbo. He looks up and salutes in the direction of his team before aiming his bow and firing.

Both of them miss, but that's nothing new, and Tommy drags Tubbo forward as the floor disappears right where the blonde-haired boy had been standing.

He opens up the link that connects them. 

_ 'Stand still. Don't move until I tell you to.'  _ He feels confusion from his friend, but also acceptance. 

He blinks, and his vision flashes and he's shown things, and he crosses his arms and smirks as Dream and Sapnap once more draw back their arrows to fire. 

_ 'Duck.' _

Tubbo ducks his head, and Tommy jumps. The arrows miss them.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Dream yells again, anger in his voice as he tears his mask aside to glare at Tommy with deathly green eyes. 

He grins and closes his eyes, and he knows what fake Sapnap is going to try to use to dodge the arrow that Tommy fires.

And hits.


	8. Chapter 8

Dream yells as his teammate disappears in a pile of white smoke, and Tommy can't fully control his visions, so he misses Dream, but that's one down and one left and he looks up to see Wilbur with awe in his expression and  _ pride  _ in Techno's, and something is swelling in his chest. 

He grabs Tubbo's hand and drags his friend to the side. 

"Hey,  _ Dream _ ," he calls in the silence. The green bastard is cursing as he loads his first arrow. "Maybe you shouldn't mess with the guy that can see the future."

Tubbo laughs at Dream's horrified expression, Tommy smirks. 

But Dream's power is speed and precision, and Tommy just  _ barely _ dodges the arrow that arcs for his chest, faster than anything that anybody can see - even Tommy, who only knew about because he saw himself fall. Even Tubbo blinks, confused, before the arrow falls into the lava behind him and he realizes that something just happened. 

"How am I supposed to beat this?" Dream demands, turning towards the Noxcrew, who are standing - some looking as if they're going to intervene, and others just  _ staring _ . 

"You're not," Tommy replies with a laugh. "Suck it, green boy." He hears Wilbur snort briefly behind him. 

He's not experienced enough with magic to control when to get a vision, so he's surprised when an arrow halts mere inches from his face. 

"Don't you  _ dare _ ," Tubbo says in a dangerous voice, as Tommy swallows and steps aside, glancing at his friend, whose blue eyes are leaking magic. 

_ 'You have telekinesis?' _

_ 'Apparently.' _

_ 'That's so cool.' _

_ 'Thank you.' _

Tommy briefly realizes that his own eyes are glowing when he glances at Tubbo and sees himself reflected in the bright blue orbs of his friend. 

Well, that's certainly a dead giveaway. 

Tommy plucks the arrow from the air, feeling Tubbo release it into his grasp. He draws back his bow.

_ 'Tubbo, now.' _

Dream is moving fast -  _ very  _ fast, so fast that even with Tommy's future-visions, he's not sure if he can ever hit the green bastard. But the masked man comes to a halt as Tubbo closes his eyes and concentrates, doing the same thing that he did when Tommy wanted to steal some pastries and didn't have any money.

Dream falls to his knees, his eyes and mouth clenched, his hands at his head, and he yells out loud in pain. Tubbo's mouth twists in distaste.

"Anything to win," Tommy murmurs to his friend.

He fires the arrow, and it hits Dream in the arm. 

* * *

** ~Phil's POV~ **

_ We shouldn't have left them alone so many times. _

He stares in silence at the two boys who he'd thought to have low-level power - certainly a One, and Tommy a Two, but no. 

No. 

Tommy can see the fucking  _ future _ , and Tubbo seems to have both telekinesis and telepathic abilities. 

There is no pride as the arrow hits Dream and he is eliminated. There is fear and there is awe and there is loss, because he should have been there - he is the oldest, obviously, the two youngest boys didn't trust them enough to tell them. 

"Holy fucking shit," Wilbur mutters, and he can't help but agree.

"OH MY GOD!" Tommy screams. "WE WON!"

"AND I DIDN'T EXPLODE HIS BRAIN!" Tubbo says joyfully, and Phil feels a bit of plummeting horror as George whips around to stare at the two blonde-haired boys. 

"It was only once," Tommy says with a smirk. "And it was a squirrel. They have weak minds."

Tubbo shrugs and then stumbles back as Noxite himself teleports into the arena. 

"NO!" Techno roars, reacting before everyone else as he bangs against the barrier that separates them. His mage cuffs explode in a shatter of metal and dust, and his sword is out in another second. 

He's too slow. 

Noxite is holding up one of the smaller scanners to Tubbo's forehead, and Phil steps forward, his mouth dropping open in horror as Tommy shoves the older boy aside and takes his place instead. 

The younger screams, slumping to the ground, green light exploding from him as Tubbo falls to the ground, screaming his friend's name. 

Two dragons pop into place on the backs of both of the boys, and Noxite stumbles back, his jaw dropping as the dragons hiss. Tubbo scrambles to his feet and stumbles over to Tommy, who lies on the ground. 

Techno's sword shatters the barrier that separates the arena from the watchers, and Phil is moving before he realizes he is, and Techno's hand clamps around his wrist and his own mage cuffs explode as Techno breaks through the magical blockers. 

He leaps through the air and onto the platform - not an ordinary jump, and even Techno looks indecisive as he shoulders his sword. But Phil has the power of levitation, and he uses that to his advantage. 

The dragons hiss at his approach, but Tubbo waves his hand, and Phil wonders if the older is talking to them because they back off. He fumbles for a pulse and breathes a huge sigh of relief when he finds one. 

"What the hell was that for?" he demands, and he hears words of agreement as Techno lands unsteadily at the edge of the arena and Dream appears next to him using his speed. They glare at each other for a second before jogging over to Phil and Tubbo and Tommy. 

"He's a  _ Ten _ ," Noxite says weakly.

"I don't care what he is," Phil says. "You could have killed him."

" _ Nobody  _ is a Ten," the admin shoots back. 

"Well, the number is in the range, so obviously someone has to be," he retorts. 

Techno steps forward threateningly - and then they are all blown back by a wave of pure magic.

* * *

He climbs to his feet unsteadily, and there is a golden barrier around him, and Tubbo and Fern and Icarus are next to him, and the last thing he remembered before blacking out was Noxite holding the fucking scanner to his head and the immeasurable pain.

There is a portal that is hovering in the center of the arena - a big one, and he looks over his shoulder to see Techno, Phil, and  _ Dream _ \- and Noxite, the bitch - who are scrambling up, and Techno's sword doesn't cut through the barrier and rebounds, knocking the pink-haired man to the ground again.

He would have laughed if he didn't want to get out of there and back to his family. 

**_ 'Tommy and Tubbo.' _ **

He takes a step back in surprise as the reverberating voice fills his skull.  _ 'Uh, hi? Who the fuck are you?' _

_ 'It's a dragon, Tommy,'  _ Tubbo says in awe. 

**_ 'Tubbo is quite right, I am a dragon.' _ **

_ 'You know, that's cool and all - that's really cool, actually - but what the fuck is goin' on?' _

**_ 'You both bring danger wherever you step. You are a Ten, Tommy, in the words of your people - and Tubbo, you are a Seven, but could be a Nine one day.' _ **

_ 'Poggers,'  _ Tubbo whispers. 

**_ 'I'm going to assume that's slang for 'Wow that is so cool'. It's not cool. You draw in monsters - and you are only twelve. In a few years, the waves of monsters will be immeasurable, and your family, and everybody you have ever met, will fall.' _ **

Tommy doesn't want that to happen. The noises outside can't be heard from in here, he's sure, 'cause Phil is shouting something that he can't hear.  _ 'Yeah, how do we get that to not happen?' _

**_ 'You come with me.' _ **

He doesn't want to do that. 

**_ 'And when you're ready, and when you won't destroy your family and your friends, you can return.' _ **

_ 'When's that?'  _ Tubbo asks.

**_ 'Depends how quickly you learn to control your magic. You both are very powerful, and that can either be great - or will cause death around you.' _ **

Tommy glances over at the people - Wilbur is shouting at them, now. He glances down at Icarus and Fern, who sit by the portal.  _ 'What about the two green lizards?' _

**_ 'They have chosen you, and will be your guides in the Faerie Realm.' _ **

He licks his lips. He doesn't want anybody to get hurt, least of all people he cares about. If he leaves and comes back later, everybody will be safe. 

_ 'I think we should do it, Tommy.' _

He sighs. 

Agrees. 

He turns one last time and smiles in the direction of the three people on the other side of the barrier. 

Mouths that he's sorry.

Then he steps through the portal with Tubbo at his side.


	9. Chapter 9

** ~Tommy's POV | Three years later~ **

He has left behind the Faerie Realm to come back to the Mortal Plane.

Three years. That is how long it has taken for him and Tubbo to learn control. According to the Spirit Dragons, the younger you Peak, the harder it is to learn control. 

He can command his visions, he doesn't get them randomly anymore. He wants them to happen - they happen. He has learned that he can go forward a maximum of ten seconds. 

Tubbo can communicate with others easily, though the Spirit Dragons told them that they have a permanent spirit link between them. Tommy doesn't mind. He likes Tubbo. They are brothers in all but blood - friends to the bitter end, he hopes.

It is easier to tell them apart. He has grown tall, and Tubbo has stayed small - he makes fun of the shorter so much for that, but it's a running joke between them, and he's sure Tubbo doesn't mind too much.

The shorter doesn't risk exploding anybody's brain, and he can lift items with his mind - even Tommy, at the risk of exhaustion. Tommy finds it easier to pick apples that way. 

But he misses his home, and so he is back. He is back with the knowledge and experience, but he knows he has so much to learn. He hasn't beaten Techno in a duel yet, and Tubbo hasn't learned how to play the piano. He hasn't eaten all the cake, and he hasn't gone on an adventure yet.

He runs forward and hugs Wilbur; the brown-haired boy is annoyingly tall, still, but Tommy doesn't care, because he is home.

Tubbo is by his side, and he is surrounded by warmth and comfort. 

No more tournaments - not unless he wants to, and he doesn't, not really. He wants to win, and Techno promises to teach him how to properly fight. 

He is crying. 

Everybody is crying.

Techno calls them nerds, but he sees that the pink-haired man is crying as well. 

He is home. 

There is no more danger he and Tubbo can bring to his family. They have missed out on three years of being with Phil and Wilbur and Techno, but that was a price worth paying. There is only the future.

And luckily he can control that. 

'Cause he's all-powerful and cool and amazing - 

And he has his family by his side.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Ten.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26131468) by [aiuwu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aiuwu/pseuds/aiuwu)
  * [Tommy is a normal kid.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27538987) by [xaq](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xaq/pseuds/xaq)




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